This week (monday 2 - friday 6) the Barcelona International Climate Change Talks are happening, five days of formal negotiations, in the lead up to COP 15. Since Saturday there have been a series of actions in the cities streets as well as at the conference centre to raise awereness, to unite eco movements and to try to force change during this window of opportunity in the conference centre at the far side of Montjuic. But will it be enough to get us out of our AGE OF STUPID? Perhaps not, news has just come through today that African countries have abandoned the talks.

AGE OF STUPID - outdoor screening on streets of Barcelona this evening.

Eh sorry there, COP 15?

In mid december COP 15 (15th UN Conference Of Parties) happens in Copenhagen, Denmark. It has been labelled the "only venhicle for an international agreement which can tackle climate change". Many people from all over the world are learning the sciencea about 350, changing their normal ways, raising their voices and taking action to help bring about change. Basically, it will probably be the most important period in world history, as the outcome of these days dictates what type of world we are aiming to create. If we get it wrong we will no doubt spiral further and much deeper into Climate Chaos, the beginnings of which we are only starting to see as Irish summers are nothing but rain while many areas around the Mediterrainian are in drought, overheated and on fire.

Theres something strange going on in the streets of Barcelona

Many people walking in the busy tourist shopping street leading from Place Catalunya to Placa Universitat late on Sunday night might well have been wondering what was going on. Sitting on the street, with their backs against the wall and looking up to the outside wall of the FNAC building on the other side of the street were about 50 people, many of them were clearly moved by that which they were witnessing. A 3 way multi bill outdoor film screening had been organised, the main feature being THE AGE OF STUPID film, and while many passers by didn't get eactly what was going on, some stopped to watch and soon saw much critical views of the way in which we humans, especially those of us in the "developed world" live, how fat we are getting, how unfair our present system is, why capitalism is not sustainable and why the US entered Iraq. And if they stayed long enough they would have seen this films sobering message that unless we radically change the "normal way of life in the industrialized world" around the years 2009-2020 then the human species will have committed collective suicide.

The night before many tourist might have heard and seen the many hundreds strong demo through the streets under the banner of "el clima no està en venda" (The climate is not for sale).

These were just 2 events leading up to the BCN CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS. Here, things might be a little bit more choatic and un-cordinated but there is a deep analysis of the way the world is working, there are many different groups and project seeking to build alternatives which are sustainable and there is much people who are angry at the way the world is working at present with its twin paws of destruction; the killiing of our life system which relys on a delicate balance of nature, and the social injustice, misplacement and death to many caused by the capitalist market system of profit over all else (including, in time, human existence)

The BCN climate Talks

On Sunday evening, writing for the Guardian, John Vidal stated:

"Five days of formal negotiations remain before countries meet in Copenhagen to finish the most complex international agreement in UN history. As the teams of negotiators from 191 countries come together tomorrow for a last week of talks in Barcelona, huge political gulfs remain between rich and poor."

On Monday morning hundreds of people and 1000+ alarm clocks gave the delegates entering the building the TckTckTck WAKE UP CALL. The TckTckTck campaign is an unprecedented global alliance which represents more than 200 development, humanitarian and environment organizations. The TckTckTck Campaign Director Ben Margolis told the assembled crowd.

“We stand here today united to tell our leaders that time is running out to agree on a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal. Real money must be put on the table now by rich nations to ensure that the people in the poorest countries who are suffering the most from climate change and who are the least responsible [for the problem] are able to adapt to this growing crisis. Delay is not an option, delay kills.”

Later inside the conference Connie Hedegaard, the Danish environment minister who will be the official host of the Copenhagen talks, took the diplomatic gloves off within minutes of the Barcelona talks opening by challenging the US to set an emissions target:

I feel it [is] very hard to imagine how the US president can receive the Nobel peace prize on December 10 in Oslo only a few hundreds kilometres [from Copenhagen] if he has sent an American delegation to Copenhagen with no offer. I remind the US that it is not the only country in the world that has to have discussions with its domestic parliament. The expectation out there worldwide among populations and the young [is for] the US to deliver on one of the key challenges of our century. The Americans will have to come up [with an offer] one way or another.

That night there was also an anonymous anarchist attack on a corporate headquarters building in the city, showing how the city still has its fair share of old violent tradition.

Then today bad news, frustrated and feeling the rich nations are serious in their desire to solve these massive problems, African countries have just walked out and abandoned the conference. As reported in Reuters: African nations boycott talks in protest against rich countries

Meetings about extending the U.N.'s carbon-cutting Kyoto Protocol, one of two tracks for a new global climate deal due to be agreed in Copenhagen next month, were all canceled by the protests at the November 2-6 conference in Barcelona.

"Africa believes that the other groups are not taking talks seriously enough, not urgently enough," said Kabeya Tshikuku, of the Democratic Republic of Congo delegation.

So where do we go from here?

- Keep eyes and ears open to BCN in the next few days
- Come to Copenhagen and join the rest of those who will be there, contact Irish Climate camp
- Watch, if you havent already done so, the AGE OF STUPID, then maybe try to put on a screening in your area.

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